Comments
Adm. sizar (age 18) at CAIUS, June 29, 1667. S. of Samuel (? 1627), R. of All Saints', Hastings, Sussex. B. at Oakham, Rutland. Schools, Merchant Taylors' and Sedlescombe. ' Matric. 1667. Migrated to St John's, Feb. 2, 1668-9, but took no degree. Licensed (Bishop of London) to teach boys in East Smithfield, St Botolph, Aldersgate, where he falsely claims the B.A. Ord. priest (Ely) May 29, 1670. V. of Bobbing, Kent, 1673-4. C. to his father at All Saints', Hastings, 1674. Imprisoned at Dover for making a disgraceful charge against a Hastings schoolmaster; escaped from gaol and became a naval chaplain in 1675, expelled from the Navy. Chaplain to the protestants in the Duke of Norfolk's household. Met Israel Tonge who employed him to produce diatribes against the Jesuits, 1676. To procure information he professed Catholicism and entered the Jesuit College at Valladolid, 1677, expelled from there and later from St Omer. He claimed to be D.D. of Salamanca. Fabricated the ;Popish Plot,; 1678. Tried for perjury, 1685, and sentenced to a savage flogging and imprisonment, set at liberty, 1689. Married a rich widow, 1693. Joined the Wapping Baptists, 1701, expelled ;as a disorderly person and a hypocrite.; Pamphleteer. Died July 12, 1705. 'Administration of Effects at a Probate Court.'Admon. (Dean and Chapter of Westminster) 1705. (D.N.B.).
[subscription confirms that his claim to having been ordained priest was not false, pace Venn].
SEE OXFORD DNB.